Did you know that anxiety is contagious?

At least once a year a member of the staff team will drag themselves into the office with their nose running, full of cold and with a hacking cough; then everyone else will roll their eyes in the knowing frustration that unless their immune system is like an athlete, it’s only a matter of time before the whole team gets sick.

But what if there is a far more dangerous contagion that stalks among our congregations? That contagion is anxiety.

Negative emotions can spread

Research on how humans can involuntarily experience the emotions of others surfaced in the early 90s, led by the work of social psychologist Elaine Hatfield.